A Corporate Coup: Adventures of a Jump Space Accountant Book 4 by Andrew Moriarty

Author:Andrew Moriarty [Moriarty, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

Things were woozy for a while, but Nadine came to as she was laid on the ground. She sat up and looked around. She was in a makeshift cell, a storage area of some sort. Benches leaned against the back wall, and some sort of mechanical parts lined one side, with boxes of food trays along the other. Metal fencing spanned from floor to ceiling along the front, with a fenced door in the middle.

Jake came over and helped her sit up.

“Wow, that was fun. What happened?” Nadine said.

“Shock stick,” Jake said.

Nadine looked around. Braid was slumped on the bench in the corner, and Brunette was helping clean her up.

“What are they doing here?” Nadine asked.

“We don’t mind a bit of fighting from time to time,” a voice behind her said. Everyone turned. Standing behind the mesh was Honest Bob and one of his bartenders. “We don’t like things getting out of hand inside the bar, though.”

“Because you are worried about your elegant decor being damaged?” Nadine said.

“Because I have rent to pay, and fights get in the way of me selling drinks,” Bob said. “What you do on your private time is up to you. This is sort of your private time. Here’s the rules. We leave you here for a full shift to sober up.”

“We’re not drunk,” Jake said.

Bob looked closer at him. “That’s Jake Stewart, isn’t it? Welcome back to the Rim. You went coreward to get an education, didn’t you?”

“Merchant’s academy. Two years.”

“Good for you, Jake. You always worked hard. I have to say, I’m surprised to see you in here. Never happened before.”

“I was helping out a friend,” Jake said, giving Nadine a hand up.

Bob gave Nadine a once-over. “Also surprised to see you with a friend who looks like that. Must have learned something coreward.” He shrugged. “Any-who. You four stay here a shift, till we think you won’t cause any more trouble. All four of you walk out, or none of you walk out. If anybody has to go to medical, all of you go up in front of the station council. A fine and expulsion will be the least of your worries. Jake’s a local, so we’ll just let him out, but the tacit agreement is that that somebody’s buddies will put a whaling on him, and nobody will say a word.”

“What if the person being beaten up doesn’t have any local buddies?” Nadine asked, gesturing at the two Francois girls.

“In that case, buddies will be provided. We have rules here. So, you can continue to settle your differences if you want, provided you are smart about it, or you can all keep your hands to yourself and walk away. Any questions?” Bob looked at each of them in turn. “Good. Camera’s up there.” He pointed to the roof. “Nobody watching, but if anything happens, we can go back and see who started it. See you at shift change.”

Bob and the bartender marched out.

Nadine sat back on the bench and glared at the girls.

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